Social Factors Key to Landscape-Scale Coastal Restoration: Lessons Learned from Three U.S. Case Studies

In the United States, extensive investments have been made to restore the ecological function and services of coastal marine habitats. Despite a growing body of science supporting coastal restoration, few studies have addressed the suite of societally enabling conditions that helped facilitate successful restoration and recovery efforts that occurred at meaningful ecological (i.e., ecosystem) scales, and where restoration efforts were sustained for longer (i.e., several years to decades) periods. Here, we examined three case studies involving large-scale and long-term restoration efforts including the seagrass restoration effort in Tampa Bay, Florida, the oyster restoration effort in the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and Virginia, and the tidal marsh restoration effort in San Francisco Bay, California. The ecological systems and the specifics of the ecological restoration were not the focus of our study. Rather, we focused on the underlying social and political contexts of each case study and found common themes of the factors of restoration which appear to be important for maintaining support for large-scale restoration efforts. Four critical elements for sustaining public and/or political support for large-scale restoration include: (1) resources should be invested in building public support prior to significant investments into ecological restoration; (2) building political support provides a level of significance to the recovery planning efforts and creates motivation to set and achieve meaningful recovery goals; (3) recovery plans need to be science-based with clear, measurable goals that resonate with the public; and (4) the accountability of progress toward reaching goals needs to be communicated frequently and in a way that the general public comprehends. These conclusions may help other communities move away from repetitive, single, and seemingly unconnected restoration projects towards more large-scale, bigger impact, and coordinated restoration efforts

Abstracts from the NIHR INVOLVE Conference 2017

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'Anywhere out of the world' : restlessness in the work of Bruce Chatwin

This thesis is centrally concerned with the theme of restlessness within the work of the British author Bruce Chatwin. Critical interpretation of Chatwin’s work has tended to focus on the generic and political status of the five full-length works he produced during his lifetime, exploring the theoretical implications of the author’s formal approach. This concentration on the structural and ideological elements of Chatwin’s creative output has resulted in the substantive thematic material of the works being somewhat overlooked. The following analysis intends to redress this balance, focussing specifically on the creative representation of the key theme of restlessness within Chatwin’s body of work. This thesis will explore the topic of restlessness through an analysis of both the author’s published work and the embargoed archive of Chatwin’s notebooks, diaries and manuscripts that resides in the Bodleian Library, the majority of which has never before been made available to critical scrutiny. Drawing on this important and previously unstudied archive, which includes the manuscript of Chatwin’s first unpublished work, known as “The Nomadic Alternative”, the following thesis will examine the origins and development of the theme of restlessness, which can be seen as Chatwin’s chief literary preoccupation; a condition that he perceived as endemic to the human species, and which he argued crucially influenced both the individual possibility of discovering satisfaction in one’s life and the wider likelihood of attaining social harmony. Tracing Chatwin’s interest in the subject from its earliest literary manifestation in “The Nomadic Alternative”, this thesis intends to document the development of the author’s consistent engagement with the notion of restlessness, examining both his literary representation of the affliction as well as presenting an analysis of his theory of human movement.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Mapping Dreams/Dreaming Maps: Bridging Indigenous and Western Geographical Knowledge

Dreams and dreaming practices are integrated into knowledge-building processes in many Indigenous societies. Therefore, these practices may represent a source of geographical and cartographic information. This article addresses their incorporation into collaborative and cross-cultural research methods, especially in the framework of participatory mapping projects conducted with Indigenous communities or organizations. It is argued that dreams and dreaming practices enable the consideration of Indigenous territorial dimensions, such as the sacred and the spiritual, as well as the presence of non-human actors, that are more difficult to grasp through the social sciences or modern Western mapping methodologies. In addition, this approach invites geographers and cartographers to adopt a culturally de-centered concept of the notions of territory, mapping and participation that goes beyond the positivist premises of Western science and its research methodologies. This text draws from a Mapuche counter-mapping and participatory mapping experience that took place in southern Chile between 2004 and 2006 and in which the author took part as a cartographer